Old Castles — Sarcophagical Lament of the Past

After ten demos, and a few compilations/ ltd boxsets Sarcophagical Lament of the Past is the first official album from Chilean Old Castles- who brew up a sinisterly raw, discordantly baying and often wonkily gloomy take on the blacked metal form.

The release appeared in early March of this year- as either a vinyl, CD, or digital form- I’m reviewing the last of these. Cover artwork wise we get a washed-out photocopy like photo of a church seen through tree branches. The album appears on Lithuania's Inferna Profundus Records, whom have a good track record for releasing the more grimly obscure/ atmospherically grainy/blackly crude side of BM.

It's seemingly a little unclear when exactly Old Castles started- as it’s suggested they started recording in 2012, but never released anything until 2019. The project is from Valdivia, Los Ríos, and a one-man venture, featuring just Lord Valtgryftåke(13th Temple, Gryftigæn, Mantiel, Pyreficativm, Ründgard).

The album is an eight-track affair- with a total runtime of forty-six and a bit minutes. The pace of the tracks moves from been shambling rapid, to clamouring mid-paced, down to grim creeps ‘n’ crawls. As a whole, it flows as a fairly varied album, though of course particular moments stood out to me. There’s the wonderfully entitled “Malicious Entities (Adorned Corpses With Excrement)” which mixes thumbed guitar discord, ritual banging ‘n’ knocking percussion with rolling growls, wails, and creaking coffin lid moans. We have the initially mid-paced-crudely flanging shamble ‘n’ churn of “Carved in Funerary Bones” which later picks up the pace in a nicely glamouring  & wonky manner.  With the album been topped off by the sombre chug ‘n’ bash of “Crossing the Veil of Gamaliel”- which finds shifting pitch bass flaying under the blunt hack of the guitar, and the shadowy bay ‘n’ moan of the vocals.

If you have a penchant for shambling and crude lo-fi black metal, that’s deep in the dust of sinister discordance and heady with depressive unwell-ness Sarcophagical Lament of the Past will most certainly appeal. To hear samples & find out more- drop by here.